The District ended fiscal year 2011 with a $240 million surplus, the best showing in years, but Mayor Vincent Gray said Monday he has no plans to roll back tax hikes approved last summer when the economic situation appeared far more dire.

"We still have a fragile situation here in this city," Gray said as he released the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), a required yearly audit of the District's finances. "I don't think we're at that point."

D.C. collected $88 million more tax revenue in FY 2011 than it budgeted, according to the CAFR. City agencies underspent their budgets by $86.6 million and "other" revenue sources came in $64 million higher than projections. The total surplus: $238.86 million. The District's fund balance now stands at $1.1 billion, up from $890 million at the close of fiscal 2010, as efforts to bolster the city's reserves prove successful.

And none of it, said Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, is free to be spent. It is already spoken for, either through previously approved policy initiatives, mandatory reserves or debt service.

That's not to say D.C. leaders won't try. D.C. Councilman Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, chairman of the finance and revenue committee, wants to roll back the income tax hike (among other levies) adopted last year for residents who earn at least $350,000 a year. Their bracket rose from 8.5 percent to 8.95 percent.

Every option is on the table, said Council Chairman Kwame Brown. "Residents want to know," he said, "what's in it for them."

Gandhi, Gray, Brown and Evans will head to Wall Street Thursday to meet with the bond rating agencies.

"Nobody has what we have," Evans said.

D.C.'s economy is "perhaps better than any other city in the country," Gandhi said, but that can change in an instant given the District's economy is so dependent on the federal government.

"They sneeze over there and we get pneumonia," the CFO said.

Gandhi's latest revenue estimates, released in December, reduced projected revenues in 2013 by $46.4 million, in 2014 by $92.1 million and in 2014 by $129.8 million. Said Gray, "I don't think we're at a point of stability yet."

Speaking of Gandhi, his latest five year contract expires at the end of June. I asked Gray whether the CFO will be reappointed, and he responded, that the conversation hasn't started. It's hard to imagine Gray and Gandhi parting ways (assuming Gandhi wants to stay) given this positive economic news.